Lecture 4: Making Equality
Isos and homoios, both often translated as equality in Plato’s dialogs, signify differently. In Phaedo, for example, isos appears as “the Equal itself,” knowable by intellect, while homoios appears as “what is equal,” and refers to things that are perceived by the senses as the same in some respects and not in others. This lecture develops an account of democratic equality by exploring the political and theoretical implications of these differences, including by attending to the distinction between arithmetic equality and geometric or proportional equality in Statesman.
Date: 17 February 2026, 17:00
Venue: Examination Schools, 75-81 High Street OX1 4BG
Venue Details: South School
Speaker: Professor Jill Frank (Cornell University)
Organising department: Faculty of History
Part of: Carlyle Lectures in the History of Political Thought 2026: The Shape of Democracy
Booking required?: Not required
Audience: Members of the University only
Editor: Belinda Clark